18% of the country severely to extremely dry, finds IMD data

PUNE: Nearly a month after the onset of the monsoon in India, 118 districts — or 18% of the country — are witnessing severely to extremely dry conditions.


These districts include Parbhani, Yavatmal, Nanded, Solapur, and Hingoli, despite Maharashtra enjoying a good monsoon. Some districts in the eastern parts of the country, usually wetter than others, are also reeling under severe to extremely dry conditions this monsoon.

The findings are based on India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) standard precipitation index (SPI), which is used to measure drought conditions in a region.

The values assigned to a district are negative for drought-like conditions and positive for wet conditions. The values are higher or lower based on the severity of the conditions.

As per the latest SPI findings, 28 of 36 subdivisions in the country have one or more districts in this category. West Uttar Pradesh, NMMT (

Nagaland

, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura), Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Telangana, Rayalaseema and Kerala are among the worst-hit subdivisions.

“Monsoon has been subpar in Marathwada, and to some extent in Vidarbha, because of the absence of an effective Bay of Bengal branch, which drives most of the rainfall in these regions,” Pulak Guhathakurta, head of climate application and user interface at IMD-Pune, told TOI.

Guhathakurta said that most “severely to extremely districts” were in northwest India, where monsoon was delayed. “Some districts in eastern India, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, nine in Haryana, Chandigarh, and Delhi, and five in Punjab, are also dry, which means rains here have been below expectations,” he added.

Rainfall deficiency indicates less rainfall, while SPI shows drought-like conditions. Both the SPI and rainfall deficiency maps of the country show the same regions in deficient category.